Month: November 2009

I’m en route to DFW tonight, to spend Thanksgiving with my parents, brother, and sister. Delta is debuting a new service, in-flight wifi. They want to charge $10 for this eventually, but it looks like the first taste is free. It’s a very slow connection, so I don’t think they’ll hook me longterm. But realistically,…

I wish pedantry wasn’t so much fun, because everyone hates a pedant. And with, I suppose, good reason. Showing people up is not nice. But there’s such joy in it, I tell you! And so, for the next five minutes, I will give myself permission to be a nasty smarty-pants and present to you: Three…

We are entering the home stretch, folks. The cards indicate things I have left to do for my book. On the left, tasks not yet completed. In the middle, tasks in progress. And on the right, tasks already completed this week. Getting there.

Put your hair up with a chopstick. This not only keeps it dry, it looks writerly. Think ahead. If you tend to accumulate almost-but-not-quite-out-of-ink pens, scribble test before you get soaked. Keep a washcloth nearby so you can keep your hands (and pages) dry. You can tolerate a much longer, much hotter bath if you…

Writing a book that takes place in 1928 requires certain adjustments. Adjustments in my way of thinking, but also in my way of using words. Kitty uses “O.K,” not the more modern spelling “okay.” She would never dream of taking the Lord’s name in vain. And when she wants to call bullshit, she calls “applesauce”…

I usually try to keep politics off this blog, partly because I know not everyone wants to hear about it, but mostly, I confess, because I am a coward and I fear losing friends. Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like political discourse has gotten a lot less friendly and a lot more…

I may be just a mild-mannered writer in a ruffle-collared blouse, but even I have dreams that in the Zombie Apocalypse, I will be one of the few to survive. I imagine boarding up the windows and, if necessary, taking out the stairs from the first story of my house to the second. Zombies can’t…

When you know you’ve met someone special, you don’t want to ever let them go. That’s the way it is with me and my current writing group. We started seeing each other more than five years ago when I lived in San Jose. And though it’s now a long distance relationship, somehow we manage to…